SC asks Madras HC to decide pleas on polls to coop societies

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said the High Court would decide the petitions, including the one filed by Tamil Nadu State Cooperatives Election Commission, by June 8.

The bench, which also comprised Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, said the High Court would also decide the maintainability of a plea filed by DMK MLA and chief whip R Sakkarapani.

The DMK lawmaker, through his lawyer Amit Anand Tiwari, had alleged large scale corruption in the polls, saying that candidates in almost 85 per cent of the societies were declared winners unopposed.

He had claimed that about 1.4 lakh people had filed nominations for these posts and the nomination papers of over 70,000 candidates were rejected.

Earlier, the apex court had refused to stay the ongoing election process for several posts in over 18,000 cooperative societies in Tamil Nadu and directed that the poll process would continue as per schedule. It had however asked the Tamil Nadu State Cooperatives Election Commission not to declare the results until a decision is taken on its petition.

The Tamil Nadu State Cooperatives Election Commission had moved the top court against a High Court verdict ordering 'status quo' on the poll process and sought records, pertaining to the nominations filed and rejected, from it.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the poll panel, said once the election process has begun, it cannot be stalled and moreover, these are small elections of small societies and political parties have no role in it.

The Tamil Nadu State Co-operatives Election Commission had on March 5 announced four-phase elections to 18,775 primary cooperative societies. It had held elections to 4,698 societies in phase 1 and 4,479 societies in phase 2. It has to conduct polls to 4,531 societies in phase 3 and 4,727 elections in phase 4.

Challenging the polls, several petitions were filed before the high court alleging that the commission had accepted the nominations of candidates belonging to the ruling AIADMK who were declared successful.

The pleas before the high court had also alleged that the commission had rejected nominations of the candidates of rival political parties. It had not served orders to these candidates stating reasons for the rejection. The high court had ordered status quo in the matter.